A variant of the new coronavirus that first appeared in Southern California last summer has now spread to more than a dozen U.S. states and several other countries, according to a new study.
The variant, known as CAL.20C, was first detected in a single case in Los Angeles County in July 2020, but did not appear again in Southern California until October 2020, according to the study, published Thursday. fair (February 11) in the newspaper JAMA. Then, cases of the variant soared in the LA area, coinciding with the region’s winter peak in general cases of coronavirus.
CAL.20C is now responsible for almost half of COVID-19 cases in Southern California and about a third of cases in the state based on an analysis of viral genomes posted to a global database called GISAID.
In addition, the researchers found that, at the end of January, the variant spread to 19 other states, up from the five states in November 2020. It also spread beyond the US to six other countries – Australia, Denmark, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
The researchers suspect that Southern California travelers are spreading the variant elsewhere. “CAL.20C is moving, and we think it’s the Californians who are doing it,” study senior co-author Jasmine Plummer, a research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said in a statement.
The CAL.20C variant – also known as B.1.429 – is defined by five distinct mutations, three of which are in the virus’s spike protein, the structure that allows the virus to bind and infect human cells.
Despite the apparent increase in the variant in Southern California, scientists still do not know whether CAL.20C is more contagious than other strains of coronavirus. The variant may have become more common simply by chance, rather than having an inherent biological advantage, according to The New York Times.
The researchers also noted that the study’s analysis was limited to samples included in publicly available databases, as well as about 2,300 samples from their hospital, and they cannot rule out “collection bias”, which means that the samples may have collected from certain populations, but not from others.
However, the variant has a worrying mutation known as L452R. This genetic mutation is in a gene that encodes the so-called receptor binding domain (RBD), a point in the spike protein where the virus first connects with human cells. Mutations in this area can, in theory, allow the virus to spread more easily, Live Science previously reported.
Last month, California health officials said they were concerned about a variant of the L452R mutation because it was identified in several major outbreaks in Santa Clara County, Live Science previously reported.
Cedars-Sinai researchers are continuing to study CAL.20C to determine whether it is more contagious, more serious or more capable of withstanding current vaccines, compared to other strains.
Originally published on Live Science.